fiber, crafts, family, and food in a nutshell.

reduce, reuse, recycle

August 30, 2010

I would love to say that this summer has been hectic. It has, but not in the traditional sense. Our lives have been moving, shifting, and are slowly molding into a dream. It's been like the pressure being placed upon two tectonic plates that suddenly shifts with an earthquake. That's what this summer has felt like.

Phoenix has had a growth spurt. Everyone who has known him for a while will comment on it. With my being around him all the time, subtle changes are more difficult to notice, but even I can see it. His pants have begun to creep up to his ankles, his face is longer and thinner. Today I brought down a box of Isaiah's old 4T clothes from the closet. Isaiah and I took a sweet trip down memory lane as we unpacked the box and put the clothes away together for his little brother. I was a bit worried about Phoenix resisting the whole set of "new" clothes, but he saw a few shirts he really liked and seemed pretty happy.

July 29, 2008

These are my favorite pair of jeans. My neighbor brought them to me about a year ago after pulling them out of the dumpster. He thought they might fit, and sure enough, they did. I noticed that they had a small hole (which is probably why they were thrown away), and didn't really think much of it... until I pulled them out of the dryer this week and the hole looked like this.

Dang, that's a big hole.

So I did what any other frugal girl would do and sewed it right on up.

Yes, I know it looks all loppy, but bear with me... here comes the fun part. I rummaged through my findings and trims and found an unused roll of lace from an abandoned project of months past.

... and there you have it.

Even cuter from the front, no?

Sorry about the weird color in the photos, but hey, craftiness like this can't wait for good lighting.

June 10, 2008

Last week I made a boat load of black beans and Mexican style rice. The rice was especially delicious, but I kind of winged it, so I'll have to give it another try and actually write down a recipe for y'all. This is one to be shared! I grabbed a package of whole wheat tortillas, and made about a dozen or so bean and rice burritos - then stuck them all in the freezer. These will make great "last minute" and "I don't feel like cooking tonight" meals. Easy, and cheap!

I am loving the way the back of the baby quilt looks. All those layers piled up on top of one another, all that texture! This may inspire me to make a "backwards" quilt in the far off to distant future.

I found a t-shirt in the trash can of our community laundry room. I brought it home, cut it up, and added it to the crocheted rug I am working on for our bathroom. This is my first crochet project ever, and it is coming out all loppy, but I'm okay with that.

I busted out the old juice maker, and have been on a juice making frenzy this week. Isaiah wanted to make grape juice. It's not my favorite, but how could I say no? We trod off to the market and purchased a bag of some ridiculously expensive organic grapes, then set back home to make some juice. Seriously, it was the best tasting grape juice I have ever had. If we stick to freshly juiced, I may be a grape juice convert.

This is another one of those things that I had been meaning to blog about, but just never got around to it. I think I made this tunic for myself right around Thanksgiving time last year. I love the pattern, but next time I think I will finish off the raw outer edges with bias binding, and I will move the belt to just below the bust, so it has more of an A-line feel to it, and maybe (just maybe) I'll try the cap sleeves. Who knows?

Sweet almost two year old little fingers. He had asked to wear my rings, and was so delighted when I handed them over to him. His grin spread from ear to ear, and he was surprisingly very careful with them. It's almost as if he could tell they were something really special, and to be taken care of.

This is a new-to-me vintage apron pattern that I purchased recently. Actually, I have added quite a few to my collection recently, this is just one of them that I have started working on.

For those of you interested in this sort of thing, I am going to be adding all of my vintage apron patterns to my Flickr account one of these days. I'll keep you posted on that.

This is the fabric I'm using for it (Robert Kaufman, "Fresh as a Daisy"). The polka dot is for the neck line and the trim. It is turning out super cute, but I still have to finish trimming the neck line, and sewing the hem. I probably won't get around to doing this any time soon because I have a ton of other projects that I need to wrap up. Procrastination is my middle name.

May 05, 2008

Americans have been born and raised to accept and hold up a consumer driven society on high. However, many of us have
become increasingly aware of our wasteful ways, and we now look out for and turn to eco-friendly solutions whenever possible. No doubt you have heard of the all mighty, energy saving, Compact Fluorescent Lamp and have
already heard of its touted benefits and superiority from every street corner. By now, I'm sure most of you have
them in your homes, including myself. The solution was simple and it was handed to us on a silver platter. We fed into it, we bought it.

Take a look at the package your CFL came in, and you just might miss the nonchalant notice on the back that the lamp you just bought contains mercury. How's that for a slap in the face? Your eco-friendly light bulb contains mercury. Now really, with all the bru-ha-ha about Monsanto these days does that really come as such a surprise? Aren't household products that contain mercury, a potent neurotoxin, illegal by now? Well, yes and no.

Also, many people do not recycle simply because they do not know where facilities exist. Please, please, please, I beg of you, do not throw away your CFL's. They will either break in your trash can, in the dumpster, on the way to the landfill, or once they hit the landfill itself, leaching out mercury into the environment, and into our water. Earth911.org will help you connect with a recycling facility near you. Just enter in your zip code and what you want to recycle (i.e. paint, batteries, or CFL's). If you have an IKEA locally, take your bulbs there. They recycle.

May 02, 2008

This is my first Frugal Friday post, and I hope you like it. If you do, I'll try and keep Frugal Friday's a regular thing around here. If not, well, I'll just have to put my tail between my legs and put my thinking cap back on.

Isaiah and I used this technique for making fabric from fused plastic grocery bags. I then turned our new found plastic fabric into a bowl cover. You know, like what your grandma used to cover her bowls with to keep food fresh, and nastys out. Since I'm on a roll here with attempting to rid our household of products that are designed to be thrown away, I figured I could add plastic wrap to my blacklist. I think covering bowls is really my only use for plastic wrap, other than rolling out sugar cookie dough before chilling it... and I think I'm willing to make that sacrifice.

4 - sew on a piece of 1/4" elastic around the edge using a zig zag stitch, all the while keeping the elastic stretched to its limit. Ta da!

You certainly don't have to use the plastic bag fabric making method. You could try using oilcloth, PUL, or even a shower curtain. We did the plastic bag method because it was free with the exception of the elastic. Hence, frugal and reusable!

April 26, 2008

April 20, 2008

Hey peeps! I have some really exciting news for you today. Yes, yes, I am hosting my very first swap, and I am beside myself. I hope that you will think this is as cool as I do, and want to join in on the fun.

Earth day is coming up and that is what inspired me to get going on this project. Everyone knows that Earth Day is everyday, but we all have room for improvement, right? So here's the deal - since I have started boycotting paper towels, naturally other things have ensued. Take the plastic shopping bag for example; I refuse to use them any longer. Seriously, I'm fed up with them for more reasons than I care to go into. I'm sure there are many of you readers that have already taken this step forward, and more power to you. The way I figure it is, they can be banned from my home with a lot less effort than an entire city. This is definitely do-able.

So where to start? With reusable, eco-friendly bags, of course! I am in need of a few, and I'm sure there are others out there that wouldn't mind having an extra one on hand either. So lets get crafty and swap! Why swap, when you can very well make your own? Well, because it makes life that much more merrier. It's an opportunity to meet someone new, and do something special for someone you might not have otherwise had an opportunity to. There's lots of love to go around!

I have posted a separate page with the info., because there is just too much to fit in a post (or so I think). So click here to get the scoop! Be sure to join the Flickr group so you can post your photos for show and tell. Oh, and did I mention that thanks to Bonnie there is a raffle involved? Exciting stuff!

April 16, 2008

Does anyone else out there cut their fabric with a paper cutter? I swear, this was one of the best purchases I have ever made. Yesterday I used it to cut up some fat quarters from Down Shadow Lane that I turned into napkins.

I know napkins aren't the most exciting thing you can do with fat quarters, but hey... we needed them. Especially after the decision I made a few weeks ago to forgo purchasing paper towels ever again. I think it's really silly/stupid to spend money only to (literally) throw it away.

This one is my fave. See the spots on it? Yeah, I'm totally lame...

My parents came over for lunch last week and after setting everything down on the table, I began to fumble around for (what else?) paper towels. After realizing we didn't have any because of that wonderful decision I had made a couple of weeks ago - I find my fat quarters and sheepishly toss them in my parents direction. "Here." I say, "These are going to become napkins anyway." How tacky... oh well. If they're coming over to my house for lunch, they should know what to expect!

April 10, 2008

These days it seems like everyone is trying to get a little bit greener - and rightfully so. Although, I admit, sometimes it's hard to keep up. There's always one more suggestion, one more tip, one more thing to tick off of your list of enviro-friendliness. I have changed many of my wasteful habits, and am always looking for new and better ways to improve my lifestyle (and that of my family) to help Mother Earth breathe a little bit easier.

I would love to be able to say that I'm perfect and that my household is the model for green homes everywhere, but it's not. I think the important thing here is that I am conscious of this, and every day I make a conscious effort to improve. Everyone has room for a little improvement, right?

Here's something we can all do with minimal effort - go to Catalog Choice and sign up for their free service that helps you to opt-out of receiving unwanted/needed catalogs that show up in your mailbox. There is no catch, and it is a convenient and user-friendly site. It took me less than 5 minutes. Go on, you have nothing to loose except for a bunch of waste!

I keep iGoogle as my home page so I can keep track of my blog subscriptions, weather report, and what not - and by what not, I am referring to the "how to of the day". Sometimes they are practical, and at other times I think to myself, "Why the hell would anyone want to make a sculpture out of pantyhose?" Clearly, some people have too much time on their hands.

Stop. Rewind. A couple of days ago I was checking out the how to of the day - how to get rid of unwanted telephone books. I didn't click on the link, and I didn't really think about it again until yesterday, when a bright and shiny new phone book (from Verizon, a carrier that does not provide my phone service) showed up on my doorstep in not one, but two plastic bags. As if the phone book alone wasn't bad enough. So now I'm thinking hard about this phone book business.

When was the last time I actually used a phone book? Um... er.... uh... I really don't remember. It's been years. How many of them do I have in my house? At least three - three outdated phone books that I can not recall ever using. So how do I stop this nonsense?

Here is a decent article I found on MSNBC - my go to place for everything newsy. The article features a link to Let's Stop the Waste, a great facts related source. I love facts, but it still didn't answer my question. How do I keep these things from showing up on my doorstep?

Apparently, at this point in time there is no way to opt out of receiving unwanted phone books. However, I have read that you can try calling the telephone company directly asking to be removed from their delivery list. Good luck with that - considering that the phone companies have absolutely no incentive to cease delivery (advertising = revenue), and neither do the third parties that they hire to deliver the books, as they get paid by the book.

Worst case scenario? Contact your city council and pave the way to establishing a city ordinance mandating that only the phone company serving a residence may deliver unsolicited directories.

But it's just one phone book... is it really that big of a deal? YES, it is.